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“Footnotes”

Since I have been called “obscure” (or worse), I try to provide amplifying information where it may be needed. Just like in your old school reports, many times I’ll do this by putting a little elevated symbol (superscript) at the end of a thought. Instead of looking at the bottom of the page for a matching number, now you can just click on the symbol and be automatically transported to the appropriate reference material. Since I no longer need numbers, I’ve replaced them with the following: “A” means you will be sent to an article on the Web confirming my remark, “B” will be a previous blog post, “C” sends you to one of my side comments, “D” means a definition, and “E” means something providing extra information. These symbols may be followed by a number if I need to refer to the reference again later.

I could also use inline notes (click on the gray-highlighted line) or traditional hyperlinks (click on the underlined words).

Tag: fear of numbers

What you shouldn’t hold your breath waiting for:

Those of my attributes that aren’t relevant to the discussion at hand are really none of your business. My sex is one of those, or should I say gender, because you will not find on these pages any “battle of the sexes” comments about why one sex is better than the other or engaging in any discussions using cliches and tired stereotypes to bash the opposition. I always thought those were stupid, even as far back as the preteen years, when catching cooties from members of the opposite sex suddenly became such a huge concern for most of my friends. Similarly, I won’t be discussing my sexual orientation. I know what it is, and my partner knows what it is, and since you are neither of those, I’m hard pressed to understand why you care. I doubt my height, weight, or race will have any role in this blog either.

Why I’m doing this:

Many people would consider me old. You would probably pick up on that soon enough. Back in the 1970’s, during the CB radio craze, “Silent Knight” was my handle (“Holy Knight” was never considered). Being true to character, however, nobody ever heard that name from me. I had learned early in life that you can learn more with your mouth shut. As I’ve been aging (especially more recently), I find myself becoming more opinionated, however, or maybe just more concerned about the direction this country is taking. I understand that’s the path a lot of people take as they get older. I just hope I have a few more good years left before my wildest fears get the best of me and I’m forced to become a Republican.

Politics is an acceptable topic for this blog. Religion is also an acceptable topic for this blog. Since I am by no means an expert on any of these topics, I was hoping I could count on my readers to keep me honest. As I hinted in the first paragraph, I will not let these discussions deteriorate into mindless sound bites and one-liners. I expect respondents to actually address the issues and questions brought to light by those before them instead of talking past them in parallel conversations. Facts are important (but might be refuted by other facts). Facts cannot be trumped by theories or opinions, and even anecdotes could be considered suspicious.

We will discuss people’s rights in this blog. As an example, this is my blog and your right to free speech ended when you entered. I expect to be a gracious host

To see the Note click here.To hide the Note click here.

As usual, “host” here is the generic, gender-neutral form which could include “hostess”.

and welcome encourage opposing points of view, but I am under no obligation to let you trash all rules of civility and intelligent discourse to spout some mindless, unsupportable crap. In that case, I may or may not use you as another fine example of an idiot, at my sole discretion.

More about me:

As you guessed, I consider myself to be liberal in most areas (although what once was considered liberal has since been relabeled “socialist”, and may now even be called “communist” by those who obviously have no idea what they are talking about.

Although I mention religion as a possible topic, I didn’t say anything about my own religious views yet. That’s not something I can do in 25 words or less; I was hoping I’d have time for that later. Also later, the astute reader will learn some of the various life experiences I have had, but only as they relate to a particular topic.

The last thing you may need to know is that I have absolutely no fear of numbers. Numbers are merely a subset of human language and a shorthand in effective communication. I am likely to fact-check the numbers before other parts of an article. But if you think you can avoid scrutiny by simply leaving them out, be aware that any argument you make that is devoid of facts (many of which are best described with numbers) may suffer in terms of credibility and may not make it very far in this conversation. Just saying. Thanks for listening. I am looking forward to a hearty discussion.